Your Weekly Rights Review - February 4, 2011

Each week, we run down the hot civil liberties stories in Your Weekly Rights Review. This week we cover zero-tolerance in schools, the trespass policy that keeps 2,000 people away from the University of Michigan, and the politics of spamming your professors.

Michigan News

Zero Tolerance Rules Can Doom Good Students" from the Detroit Free Press

Local columnist Jeff Garrett writes about how zero-tolerance policies force good students out of school for minor offenses.

The lifetime ban has come under scrutiny for its vague language and lack of an appeals process. Interesting discussion in the comments for the article.

"Michigan School District Allows Sikh Students to Wear Religious Dagger to School" from Fox Detroit

In a victory for religious liberty, the Plymouth-Canton school district has reversed their ban on kirpans. The ceremonial daggers worn by Sikh students were banned late last year and classified as weapons, leaving Sikh students to be punished for following their religion.

The ACLU of Michigan wrote a letter recommending that the policy be changed and is glad to hear all Plymouth-Canton students are both safe and free to express their beliefs.

Due out next week, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's memoir includes a controversial denial that the abuses at Abu Gharaib were a result of Defense Department policy.

The ACLU's deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer points out that "government documents show that the methods used at Abu Ghraib were the same ones Mr. Rumsfeld approved." Sure to be the first criticism among many.